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"Let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took
upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in
the likeness of men: and being found in fashion
as a man, He humbled Himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross" (Philippians2:5-8).
For the apostle Paul,
Christ's coming to earth was a story of supreme
self-surrender and self-denial, of deliberate
choosing to relinquish rights and privileges, of
decision to renounce comfortable and secure ways
of existence, accepting instead insecurity and
subjection and death. It was for
Paul the ultimate in sharing, in reaching out to
help, in giving, in redemption. It
was for him the Great Exchange. It
meant the rich became poor, the free submissive,
the sovereign a subject, the God a
man!
But it was also for Paul a
supreme model for conduct, a challenge to
Christians to pursue a particular way of
life---the way of life lived by Christ: "Live
together in love. "Live together in
harmony. "Live no longer for selfish
ends. "Stop acting from motives of
rivalry and personal vanity. "Stop
thinking only, of your own affairs.
"Humbly think more of each other than you
do of yourselves. "Learn to see
things from other people's point of
view. "Look out for other people's
interests and not only your own. "Live the life
of exchange. "Think and act like
Christ did.
"Let Him be your example
for your own attitude and action toward
others. Let Him be your power for
implementation by allowing your conduct toward
each other to arise out of your life in Him."
God would have Christians
be channels through which His great generosity
can flow out to a world bewildered by and lost
in its own greedy acquisitiveness, not as
objects only of the incarnation of Love, but as
subjects, too, ourselves in some small degree
incarnations of that
Love.
